David Hamilton Koch (/ˈkoʊk/; born May 3, 1940) is an American businessman, philanthropist, political activist, and chemical engineer. He is a co-owner (with older brother Charles) and an executive vice president of Koch Industries, a conglomerate that is the second-largest privately held company in the United States.[7]

Koch played basketball at MIT, averaging 21 points per game at MIT over three years, a school record. He also held the single-game scoring record of 41 points from 1962 until 2009 when it was eclipsed by Jimmy Bartolotta.

In 1970, Koch joined Koch Industries. Nine years later, he would become the president of Koch Engineering.[14]

Here was a great guy, advocating all the things I believed in. He wanted less government and taxes, and was talking about repealing all these victimless crime laws that accumulated on the books. I have friends who smoke pot. I know many homosexuals. It's ridiculous to treat them as criminals—and here was someone running for president, saying just that.[15]

According to Koch, he gave his own Vice Presidential campaign $100,000 a month after being chosen as Ed Clark's running mate. "We'd like to abolish the Federal Elections Commission and all the limits on campaign spending anyway," Koch told New York magazine's Rinker Buck in 1980. When asked why he ran, Koch replied: "Lord knows I didn't need a job, but I believe in what the Libertarians are saying. I suppose if they hadn't come along, I could have been a big Republican from Wichita. But hell—everybody from Kansas is a Republican."[15]

He broke with the Libertarian Party in 1984 when it supported eliminating all taxes[3] and Koch has since been a Republican.[3]

Koch opposed the Iraq war, saying that the war has "cost a lot of money and it's taken so many American lives", and "I question whether that was the right thing to do. In hindsight that looks like it was not a good policy".[18]

Koch is critical of many of President Obama's policies. "He's the most radical president we've ever had as a nation... and has done more damage to the free enterprise system and long-term prosperity than any president we've ever had."[18] Koch believes that Obama's father's economic socialism explains what Koch views as Obama's belief in "antibusiness, anti-free enterprise influences."[18] Koch believes Obama himself is a "hardcore socialist" who is "marvelous at pretending to be something other than that".[22] Eighty-seven percent of David Koch's contributions went to Republicans in 2012.[10]

Philanthropy

Since 2000, David H. Koch Charitable Foundation has pledged or contributed more than $750 million to cancer research, medical centers, educational institutions, arts, cultural institutions, and public policy studies.[12][23] Since 2006, the Chronicle of Philanthropy has listed Koch as one of the world's top 50 philanthropists.[24]

Medical research

In 1992, Koch was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He underwent radiation, surgery, and hormone therapy, but the cancer returned every time. Koch believes his experience with cancer has encouraged him to fund medical research. He says, "once you get that disease and I've had it for 20 years almost, you become a crusader to try to cure the disease not only for yourself but for other people."[18] Koch says that his biggest contributions go toward a "moon shot" campaign to finding the cure for cancer, according to his profile on Forbes.[12] Between 1998 and 2012, Koch contributed at least $395 million to medical research causes and institutions.[25]

Koch sits on the Board of Directors of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and has contributed $41 million to the Foundation, including $5 million to a collaborative project in the field of nanotechnology.[26] Koch is the eponym of the David H. Koch Chair of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, a position currently held by Dr. Jonathan Simons.

In 2007, he contributed $100 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to help fund the construction of a new 350,000-square-foot (33,000 m2) research and technology facility to serve as the home of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.[27] He has given a total of $185 million to MIT since joining the MIT Corporation in 1988.[25]

$100 million, the largest philanthropic donation in the history of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, beginning a $2 billion campaign which will conclude in 2019 to create a new ambulatory care center and renovate the infrastructure of all of the hospital's five sites.[33]

Koch has been a trustee of the American Ballet Theatre for 25 years[36] and has contributed more than $6 million to the theater.[37] He also sits on the Board of Trustees of WGBH-TV, which produces more than two-thirds of the nationally distributed programs broadcast by PBS.[38]

Koch also sits on the board and donates to the libertarian Cato Institute and Reason Foundation.[2][3][46]

In August 2010, Jane Mayer of The New Yorker wrote a controversial[18][23] article on the political spending of David and Charles Koch: "As their fortunes grew, Charles and David Koch became the primary underwriters of hard-line libertarian politics in America."[2][23] Mayer's article was criticized by Koch Industries for using "psycho-biographic innuendo, unnamed sources, and half-truths".[47] Conor Friedersdorf, writing for the Daily Dish at The Atlantic magazine, wrote that while he respected Mayer, "the Koch brothers are legitimately upset by some aspects of the piece, and anyone who reads it should also look at the rebuttals from libertarians who are persuasively pushing back against some of its conclusions" (emphasis in original).[48]

Kimberly O. Dennis, of the Searle Freedom Trust, a libertarian foundation, suggests that the Kochs are acting against their economic interest in promoting "getting government out of the business of running the economy. If they were truly interested in protecting their profits, they wouldn’t be spending so much to shrink government; they’d be looking for a bigger slice of the pie for themselves. Their funding is devoted to promoting free-market capitalism, not crony capitalism."[49]

Time included both Charles and David Koch among the 100 most influential people of 2011. According to the magazine, the list includes "activists, reformers and researchers, heads of state and captains of industry." The article notes the brothers' commitment to free-market capitalist principles, the growth and development of their business, their passion for philanthropy, and their support for conservative organizations and political candidates.[50]

In July 2010, New York magazine profiled Koch, calling him the "tea party’s wallet" for his indirect support of the movement through his groups like Americans for Prosperity.[3] Koch concedes that he sympathizes with the Tea Party, but denies directly supporting it, and said: "I’ve never been to a tea party event. No one representing the tea party has ever even approached me."[3] Koch is reported to have addressed Tea Party leaders, telling them, "The American dream of free enterprise, capitalism is alive and well."[51]